MASSWILDLIFE PHOTOS

ONE THAT GOT AWAY – And that’s fine, because this wild brook trout from a newly restored Cape population is being tagged to help the state keep tabs on its efforts

State’s working to make their habitats homier

Steve Hurley, the Southeast District Fisheries manager for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, has been mentoring brook trout since 1990. He fell in love with fishing wild trout in New England mountains as a child. (Who of us could not be romanced by far hills, clear gelid streams and a meal born of communion with the earth about us?)

Hurley knows the linked history and ecology of the brook trout through and through.

It spawns in upwellings of springs in running water in early November by digging pockets in sand or gravel, depositing its eggs to be bathed in cool water (50 degrees) until February. Hatching, the yearlings swim in their streams until they are 3 inches long or so and in their second year some have the strength to “drop down” to salt water.

“Salt water confers a big advantage on them,” Hurley said. “There is a lot more to eat in an estuary than in the sterile upwater stream.”

Historically, sea run brook trout in our parts grew to 14 to 16 inches (1 to 2 lbs), while the ones in places such as the Berkshires stay small, at half that size. The big fish on Cape in our rivers enticed sportsmen as early as the colonial era, when John Rowe, who owned one of the Boston tea party ships, fished the Monument River (now the Cape Cod Canal). Hurley says that Daniel Webster would stay at local inns to fish the Mashpee River and Scorton Creek; about his famous 50th anniversary Bunker Hill address in 1826, he said: “The first people who heard it were the wild brook trout of the Mashpee River.”

Over the years of colonization and industrialization, forests were cut down, warming streams by eliminating shading overhang, and silting them by erosion. Pollution from coal dust to sawdust in early times, to pesticides and other toxins in recent times, curbed runs. Over-harvesting of large fish by sportsmen and by a commercial fishery that netted them for export to Boston markets also drastically diminished brook trout. In the 1830s, J.V.C. Smith’s “Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts” documented some low stocks on the Cape as a result of obstruction and pollution by mill dams.

From Falmouth and Mashpee to Sandwich and Barnstable there are streams carrying fish from the pond to the sea. Until restoration is further along, the state prefers they be kept secret, but astute fisher-folk may figure out where they are and should treat them with respect.

Restoration began in the 1950s with the stocking of “salters” of brown trout, a European breed, larger than brookies. Although the Sandwich hatchery stocked brookies in large numbers (especially in the Mashpee and Santuit rivers) there was no increase of any note in their numbers. Indeed numbers fell because the browns outcompeted our wild, native coastal salters. It was almost a last straw.

But Trout Unlimited has been doing great work restructuring brookie streams since 1975. Its efforts were joined in 1990 by Steve Hurley and Ken Simmons, as the Division began to implement its own plans of reconstituting native fish by curing rivers of their problems and purchasing and protecting habitat. (Genetic studies show remnant wild populations are not like hatchery brook trout. In the past some anglers claimed to know by body shape and color what stream a salter came from.)

One known success story on which Trout Unlimited, the Division and others partnered is the Quashnet River watershed, which now supports an independently reproducing population of brook trout up to 14 inches long. You can fish them with artificial lures, catch and release only. A few other streams are finally showing promise of recolonization. But by 2006, some stream counts showed no trout at all. The handful of brookie runs have a long way to go.

One dear to my heart is at Santuit. The pond is a warm-water fishery. But the stream runs cold and was a host to brook trout within memory. Wampanoag elders remember them darkening the edges of the pond in their youth. Septage, runoff from lawns, road crossings and other tarmac adversely impacts Santuit fish. Climate change will further warm and eutrophy waters, over-nourishing them, filling them with algae that suck out oxygen. Brook trout need clean, clear water of temperatures of 70 degrees or less. At 80 or above they die instantly.

In spite of these obstacles, the Santuit run could be rescued. The dam needs work. Management innovation needs to be put in place. If you live in Mashpee or Barnstable, or if you love to fish wild things, get involved. To help organize restoration -- and/or if you know of any wild populations of sea runs – contact Steve Hurley at 508-759-3406.

More information is available at http://www.ma-ri-tu-council.org/Bringing-Back-Native-Brookies.htm. Steve Hurley can be reached at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it